From: David_Lebling@avid.com
Subject: (whorl) Devils -> Gods; No Theophany Switch?
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 97 09:22:20 


[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

A key to the uncharacteristically benevolent nature of Pas and some of
the other gods is in Kypris's explanation of possession.  I can't quote
it exactly, but she says that after being possessed there's a bit of
Kypris in Chenille, and that if that bit were brought back to Kypris
there would be a bit of Chenille in Kypris.  (This is paraphrased, as
I'm typing this without the books handy).

After three hundred years of this sort of thing, perhaps the gods have
become humanized.  This ties in well with the remarks from the Brown
Book in _New Sun_ about the nature of rulership.  The commons mold their
gods into something like themselves but still superior to themselves. Of
course this doesn't explain Echidna or Sphigx; bad to the bone, I guess.

I'm intrigued by alga's reference to the "technicians who shut down the
theophanies."  I don't think that's what happened.  I think what
happened is that Q forbade human sacrifice, which greatly reduced the
likelihood of a sacrifice causing a theophany.  Patera Jerboa, who was
apparently the last person in Viron to have a theophany, had obviously
sacrificed a child to achieve it: read the passage where they talk about
sacrificing monkeys in _Exodus_.  Remora is about to say so explicitly,
in his usual elliptical way, when he is interrupted.

     -vizcacha

     (aka Dave Lebling)
     (david_lebling@avid.com)

ps: The "ultan" address is a great idea.

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